Defence loses again
Defence Minister Stephen Smith flippantly mentioned on radio today that no-one is lining up to invade us.
With such deep thought and careful consideration the government look to rationalizing cutting the defence budget by $4 billion.
Defer the F35 contract, cancel the long range artillery and invent $240m worth of procrastination over what we want in the way of submarines to replace the Collins class boats. That takes all that boring defence stuff out of the budget so Wayne can talk about his blessed surplus.
Peter Costello muses on the problem of deficits
four seven just today.
And another defence matter; Watch for the Royal Australian Regiment to be gutted once Afghanistan is finished.
I suggest a new tactic for the government when it comes to selling this year’s budget: to level with the public and tell the facts rather than weave the spin. This would involve admitting it was costly and unnecessary to ramp up spending by 36 per cent in the last four budgets. It would mean admitting that if a budget surplus takes pressure off interest rates now (as the government is claiming), then more careful budget policy would have helped over the last four years when we returned budget deficits of $27 billion, $55 billion, $48 billion and $37 billion – in total $167 billion. And, further, it would mean admitting the 2012-13 budget would not be a surplus at all if the government included its spending on the national broadband network (up to $43 billion), which it has taken off the budget.So Wayne argues that a few billion surplus this year will balance the last four year’s deficits and let’s ignore the $43b NBN. Are we supposed to believe that the ALP are good economic managers. I don’t think so. To help defray any debate Defence Media have been flat out issuing emails telling us what a great job the ALP are doing. I’ve received
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“Defence Minister Stephen Smith flippantly mentioned on radio today that no-one is lining up to invade us.”
This is a very sensible basis for long lead time item purchases, by co-ordinating our purchasing strategy, in consultation with that of our potential attackers, both they and we can conduct our offence/defence planning in a reasonable, cooperative fashion and thereby make great savings on the procurement of major military items.
And people said that Stephen Smith was out of his depth…
It’s okay Harry, just another indication that the country is run by people who have never known fear. Everything to them can be handled on paper or by someone else and never by their decendants.
If the Armed Services come up short because of lack of funding for Recruiting, equipment or training it will never be the fault of a politician (either side of the political divide). It’s okay though, we will have a couple of thousand Americans at the pointy end of the continent, nearest Indonesia. That will put off any ideas of an incursion from the direction of Asia. I trust you will sleep well, knowing that.
actually, Bob, one of the more interesting “unintended consequences” of such significant defence cutbacks is that, to ensure our defence, we have just effectively signed up to turn up to any war that the USA might choose to “invite” us to attend – the ALP/Greens never seem to get that if you refuse to provide for your own defence, you will be called on to pay for it in blood by those who do provide it.
Sounds like something from Sun TZU. You can be sure that when Shylock comes knocking that there will be no Portia waiting to adjudicate.